Dani Marti’s self-referentially titled exhibition I AM considers a narcissism that weighs heavy on our epoch. With a sensuous melange of materials, textures, and tones that are characteristic of Marti’s oeuvre, he skilfully draws us into his abstract visual field, traversing themes of seduction and self-obsession.

Embracing dualities, I AM explores through spheres of rich and opulent palettes, internal emotional states of darkness and light, softness and hardness. Influenced by the late American abstract expressionist painter Agnes Martin, Marti employs a reductive approach in order to arrest the viewer in the surface and encourage a moment of reflection. As with many of Marti’s works, each canvas is embedded with layers of meanings and narratives that favour the personal and the spiritual.

At the heart of the exhibition is the large-scale woven work The Story of I Am (Gold). Connecting the visual with the haptic through a dotting of gold threads and natural fibre knots, Marti creates a meditative space in which he invites the viewer to become immersed in his canvases. Utilising gold reflectors and thread as a reference to success, affluence and immortality, Marti crafts a story that communicates our perpetual desire for perfection, luxury and power.

Along two walls of the gallery, a series of sculptures made of reflectors resemble twisted mirrors, presenting a shimmering metaphor for the attention-seeking self. Brilliantly hued they demand our attention while distorting the notion of reflection. Austere and cerebral, Marti has always been drawn to minimal and monochromatic colours and lines. His mastery of surfaces and tension have made him one of Australia’s most exciting artists.

Dani Marti was born 1963 Barcelona, Spain and lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Marti works across video, installation and public art, each work constituting an intimate portrait. Marti’s unorthodox woven and filmic works speak to notions of portraiture and sexuality in Modernism, Minimalism and geometric abstraction. Since 1998, Marti has held over 40 solo exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include his solo BLACK SUN, commissioned for Perth International Art Festival (2016); Immerse, Sandneskulturhus, Sandnes, Norway (2016); La Vida es Esto, Domus Atrium, Salamanca (2015); Dark Heart, the Adelaide Biennial (2014), ECONOMY, CCA Glasgow; Stills, Edinburgh (2013); Videonale-14, Kunstmuseum Bonn (2013); Let the Healing Begin, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2011); TOUCH: The portraiture of Dani Marti, a major solo retrospective at Newcastle Regional Art Gallery (2011) ; Social Documents: The Ethics of Encounter, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh (2010); Vocal Thoughts, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (2010) and Cinema X: I like to Watch, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2010). Dani Marti’s work is held in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane; Art Bank, Sydney; Chartwell Collection, Auckland; City Art Gallery, Auckland and the University of Wollongong, NSW. Marti has completed significant public works including one at Westfield Centrepoint 100 Market St, with John Wardle Architects. The first major monograph of Marti’s work was published in 2012 by Hatje Cantz.

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ARC ONE  Gallery, Melbourne